Sandoval set out accordingly with three guides, and on reaching the sea shore, he soon perceived a canoe; and concealing himself where he expected it might anchor for the night, was fortunate enough to get possession of the canoe; which belonged to some Indian merchants who were carrying salt to Golfo dolce. Sandoval embarked in this canoe with a part of his men, sending the rest along the shore, and made for the great river. During the voyage, he fell in with four Spaniards belonging to the settlement, who were searching for fruit near the mouth of the river, being in great distress from sickness and the hostilities of the Indians. Two of these men were up in a tree, when they saw Sandoval to their great astonishment, and soon joined him. They informed him of the great distress of the settlement, and of all the events which had occurred, and how they had hanged the officer whom Avila had left in the command, and a turbulent priest, for opposing their determination to return to Cuba, and had elected one Antonio Niote in his stead. Sandoval resolved to carry these people to Cortes, whom he wished to inform as soon as possible of the news, and sent a soldier named Alonzo Ortiz, who soon reached us with the agreeable intelligence, for which Cortes gave him an excellent horse, and all of us gave him something in proportion to our abilities. Sandoval arrived soon afterwards, and Cortes issued immediate orders to march to the coast, which was about six leagues distant. Cortes pushed forwards with his attendants, and crossed the river by means of the two canoes, swimming the horses. The Spanish settlement was about two leagues from the place where Cortes landed, and the colonists were astonished on seeing the Europeans coming towards them, and still more so when they found it was the renowned conqueror of Mexico. Cortes received their congratulations very graciously, and desired them to bring all the canoes they could collect, and the boats belonging to their ships to assist his army in crossing. He likewise ordered them to provide bread for the army; but of this only fifty pounds weight could be got, as they lived almost entirely on sapotes and other vegetables, and fish.

We had an arm of the sea to cross, and had therefore to wait for low water, but Cortes had found the passage so dangerous that he sent us word not to follow till farther orders. The care of passing this dangerous place was entrusted to Sandoval, who took as effectual measures as possible, but it took us four days to get over, partly wading and partly swimming. One soldier and his horse went to the bottom, and was never seen more, and two other horses were lost. A person named Saavedra, presuming on his relationship to Cortes, refused obedience to the orders of Sandoval, and endeavoured to force his passage, even laying his hand on his poinard, and using disrespectful expressions to Sandoval; who seized him instantly and threw him into the water, where he was nearly drowned. Our sufferings at this time were excessive, as during all these four days we had literally nothing to eat, except by gathering a few nuts and some wild fruits, and on getting across our condition was not improved. We found this colony to contain forty men and six women, all yellow and sickly, and utterly destitute of provisions; so that we were under the necessity of setting out immediately in search of food both for ourselves and them. For this purpose, about eighty of us marched, under the command of Luis Marin, to a town about eight leagues distant, where we found abundance of maize and vegetables, and great quantities of cacao; and as this place was in the direct road for Naco, to which Cortes intended to go, he immediately sent Sandoval and the greatest part of the troops to join us, on receiving the agreeable intelligence of our good fortune. We sent a plentiful supply of maize to the miserable colonist who had been so long in a starving condition, of which they eat to such excess that seven of them died. About this time likewise a vessel arrived with seven horses, forty hogs, eight pipes of salted meat, a considerable quantity of biscuit, and fifteen adventurers from Cuba. Cortes immediately purchased all the provisions, which he distributed among the colonists, who eat the salted meat so voraciously that it occasioned diarrhoeas, by which, in a very few days, fourteen of them were carried off.

As Cortes wished to examine this great river, he caused one of the brigantines belonging to Avila which had been stranded to be fitted out; and embarking with thirty soldiers and eight mariners belonging to the vessel lately arrived, having likewise a boat and four double canoes, he proceeded up the river to a spacious lake with good anchorage. This lake was navigable for six leagues, all the adjacent country being subject to be inundated; but on endeavouring to proceed higher, the current became stronger, and he came to certain shallows, which prevented the vessels from proceeding any farther. Cortes now landed with his soldiers, and advanced into the country by a narrow road which led to several villages of the natives. In the first of these he procured some guides, and in the second he found abundance of corn, and many domesticated birds, among which were pheasants, pigeons, and partridges, which last are often domesticated by the Indians of America. In prosecuting his route, he approached a large town called Cinacan Tencintle, in the midst of fine plantations of cacao, where he heard the sound of music and merry-making, the inhabitants being engaged in a drunken feast. Cortes waited a favourable opportunity, concealed in a wood close by the town, when suddenly rushing out, he made prisoners of ten men and fifteen women. The rest of the inhabitants attacked him with their darts and arrows, but our people closed with them and killed eight of their chiefs, on which the rest submitted, sending four old men, two of whom were priests, with a trifling present of gold, and to petition for the liberation of the prisoners, which he accordingly engaged to give up on receiving a good supply of provisions, which they promised to deliver at the ships. A misunderstanding took place afterwards between Cortes and these Indians, as he wished to retain three of their women to make bread, and hostilities were renewed, in which Cortes was himself wounded in the face, twelve of his soldiers wounded, and one of his boats destroyed. He then returned after an absence of twenty-six days, during which he had suffered excessive torment from the mosquitoes. He wrote to Sandoval, giving him an account of all that had occurred in his expedition to Cinacan, which is seventy leagues from Guatimala, and ordered him to proceed to Naco; as he proposed to remain himself on purpose to establish a colony at Puerto de Cavallos81, for which he desired Sandoval to send back ten of the Coatzacualco veterans, without whose assistance nothing could be done properly. Taking with him all the Spaniards who remained at St Gil de Buena Vista, Cortes embarked in two ships, and arrived in eight days sail at Puerto de Cavallos, which had a good harbour, and seemed every way well calculated for a colony, which he established there under the command of Diego de Godoy, naming the town Natividad. Expecting by this time that Sandoval might have arrived at Naco, which is not far distant from Puerto Cavallos, Cortes sent a letter for him to that place, requiring a reinforcement of ten of the veteran soldiers of Coatzacualco, as he intended to proceed for the bay of Honduras; but this letter reached us in our last-mentioned quarters as we had not yet reached Naco. Leaving Cortes for the present, I shall only say that he was so tormented by the mosquitoes, which prevented him from procuring rest either by night or day, that he had almost lost his life or his senses.